Gosick Episode #09

The search for a trinket has Kujo on the path to something much bigger.

What They Say:On a shopping errand for his older sister back home, Kazuya heads for Jiangtan, a department store in the capital city of Saubreme. One of the things on his shopping list is a piece of merchandise based on the Blue Rose, a blue diamond once owned by the royal family, but stolen during the Great War. Meanwhile, Victorique is at home with a cold and Blois is in the capital trying to track down smugglers of stolen works of art.

The Review:Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)While I continue to be entertained by the visuals of Gosick, the last couple of stories haven't exactly been my cup of tea. The lengthy piece about Victorique's mother Cordelia was interesting but spread out too far and came a bit too early in the series for my tastes. While the show opened strong with the introduction and the mystery on board the ship, it hasn't been able to make me a fan beyond that and watching the attractive and detailed animation week to week. With the ningth episode, things shape up a little better as some of the smaller things are dealt with before launching into the larger story.

The focus of this episode has Kujo initially dealing with a request from his sister in the country who has asked him to pick up a number of items for him in the city that she wants. It's a charming little relationship the two have and one of her requests is for a Blue Rose, which is actually a blue diamond that's of some importance to the country as the original one was once owned by the royal family but has long since been lost. The rose shaped crystal have been replicated ever since as paperweight attractions which people like to have as a little taste of the larger world and royalty itself. That puts Kujo on the course to find out more about it which has him entering a fairly interesting web of mystery around it as you know that someone has the real one out there somewhere.

Where things get really strange for him though is when he's at the department store and goes down to the basement level and checks out all the mannequins that are down there. Looking inside one box, he's fascinated by how realistic she looks only to discover that she's really real and leaps out of there and practically attacks him before disappearing. Kujo's reputation is one that's certainly taking its hits since coming to Sabure and this is no exception. With Blois on his side, while everyone else views him as crazy and a heretic of some sort, Kujo's story starts to get investigated and leads to more revelations in a slow and steady nature that shows more of what Sabure is like. It's an interesting story at this point but one that certainly feels familiar as you wonder what the trick will be or what the grand revelation is that will tie all together.

In Summary:Victorique takes a secondary position in this episode which is a rather welcome change since she dominated much of the last three episode arc. Her taking some time off to be sick allows for several cute moments but it lets the majority of the time go to Kujo as he gets to understand more of how the city works and what kinds of pressures and politics there are there. The mystery that begins here has its potential to be sure, and backs it up with some solid and appealing animation that makes it all feel real and lived in, but it's still at that potential stage. After the way the show has played out so far, it has me cautiously optimistic since it could all be dragged out too long which reduces the effectiveness of the stories.